The gap is significant
From February 13 to 22, the first women's national team competition window designated by FIFA, the Chinese women's football team took the opportunity to travel to Spain for two weeks of training, and played two international A matches and two warm-up matches with the La Liga women's team. While the Chinese women's football team went to Spain for training, other Asian teams also went overseas to warm up, and the teams participating in the Women's World Cup in July and August this year did not miss such a good opportunity. Judging from the warm-up situation of the entire stage, it is not only the Chinese women's football team that is difficult to win, but only the Japanese women's football team has won one victory in more than 20 international A-level matches. In terms of the development of women's football in the whole world, Asian women's football has been lagging behind, while the lagging of Chinese women's football is probably more reflected in strategy and planning.
Asia's great powers are hard to come by
The Chinese women's football team went to Spain for warm-up matches on their own, while among the other Asian teams that will participate in the Women's World Cup, only the Vietnamese women's football team did not arrange a warm-up match, and the Vietnamese women's football team was the only team participating in the World Cup round of 32 that did not arrange a warm-up match. At present, the "2023 Women's National Football Championship" is underway in Vietnam, and after the end of this month, the Vietnamese women's football team will refocus and will start a long-term training camp, first to prepare for the 32nd Southeast Asian Games women's football tournament in Cambodia from the end of April to the beginning of May, and then continue to prepare for the Women's World Cup. The other three Asian teams, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, traveled to the United States, England and Spain to compete in the annual "Sheshin Cup Four Nations", "Arnold Clark Cup Four Nations" and "Costa Calida Cup Four Nations".
In those 12 matches, with the exception of Japan, which won 3-0 in the final round of the Sheshin Cup in the United States, the Canadian women's team lost all matches, not even a draw. If you add the 1 draw and 1 loss of the Chinese women's football team, the total score of the four Asian teams is 14 wins, 1 draw and 12 losses!
The South Korean women's football team went to England to participate in the Four Nations Tournament and lost all 3 games
The Japanese women's team lost 1-0 to Brazil in the first round and 1-0 to hosts the United States in the second round. This has left the Japanese women's team without scoring a goal in four consecutive international A matches, since losing 4-0 to England and Spain 1-0 during the European training session last November. In the final round against the 2021 Tokyo Olympic women's gold medalist Canada Women's Football, the latter was fighting over the issue of "equal pay for equal work" between men and women, the pre-match training was very abnormal, and there were still protests during the match, so it lost 0-3 to the Japanese women's team, but this may not represent the true level of the Canadian women's team.
The South Korean women's team was invited to England and lost 4-0 to the host England in the first round, and then lost 1-2 to Belgium and Italy in the next two rounds. Among them, the Belgian women's football team will not be able to participate in this year's World Cup.
Thailand Women's and Chinese Taipei Women's played in the play-offs without a win
The Philippine women's football team traveled to the Piñata Football Center, a famous football base in the Murcia region of Spain, to participate in the four-nation tournament in which three European women's football teams, Wales, Scotland and Iceland, all of which did not qualify for the Women's World Cup. As a result, the Philippines women's football team lost 0-1 to Wales, 1-2 to Scotland and 0-5 to Iceland.
In addition to these four teams, Thailand Women's and Chinese Taipei Women's also participated in the World Cup qualifier cross-continental play-offs in New Zealand, competing with teams from other continents for three tickets to the World Cup. Unfortunately, Chinese Taipei Women's team played Paraguay in the first round, and after leading twice, the two sides drew 2-2 in the 90-minute civil war, and failed to achieve anything in extra time, and had to exchange penalties to decide. As a result, Chinese Taipei women's football had poor luck and was eliminated by Paraguay 2-4, 4-6 on aggregate. The Thai women's football team lost 2-0 to Cameroon in the first round, and also stopped in the first round, and did not have a chance to compete for the final ticket. In the final consolation match, a 1-1 draw with Senegal women's football team, still winless.
The Australian women's football team won the Cup of Nations Four Nations
As for other Asian women's football teams that did not qualify for the World Cup or World Cup qualifying play-offs, they were also invited to Turkey, Cyprus, etc. to participate in various invitational matches or warm-up matches, but the result was more defeats and fewer victories. It has to be said that when FIFA announced the expansion of the Women's World Cup, it allocated 6 direct promotion places to Asia, plus 2 places to participate in the play-offs, one of the important reasons is that "the standard of Asian women's football is quite high". But today, the overall level of Asian women's football shows a trend of "not increasing but falling", not that the Asian women's football team has not improved, but that the European and American women's football team has taken advantage of the platform and means of the rise and development of men's football, and the momentum of development is too rapid.
Of course, in this process, the Australian women's football team is also a member of the AFC, and the reason why the team is not mentioned is because the Australian women's football team will not be present at the Hangzhou Asian Games in September this year, and as one of the hosts of the Women's World Cup, the Australian women's football team seems to be on the right track. During this window in February, the Australian Football Association organised a tournament in New South Wales called the "Nations Cup Women's Four Nations", inviting two teams from Spain and Jamaica who will participate in the World Cup, as well as the Czech Republic, which did not qualify for the World Cup. Riding on the benefits of the hosts, the Australian women's football team beat Spain 3-2, the Czech Republic 4-0 and Jamaica 3-0 to win all three games. So, if you add the Australian women's team, the Asian powers will not only win. But it has to be said that in this year's Women's World Cup, if you want to say that you can compete for good results, I am afraid that the host Australian women's football team is the first to push, and the prospects of other Asian teams are actually not very optimistic.
The Danish women's football team participated in the Women's Cup of France and won 2 wins and 1 loss
The World Cup opponents in the same group are eye-catching
As the first opponent of the Chinese women's football team in the group stage of the Australian-New Zealand World Cup Women's Football Tournament, the Danish women's football team was invited to France in February to participate in the annual "French Cup Four Nations", the other two teams include Norway women's football team who will participate in the World Cup and South American team Uruguay, who did not qualify for the World Cup. Although the Danish women's football team is currently in the process of alternating between old and new, and inconsistent performance is the biggest problem for the team at the moment, the Danish women's football team defeated hosts France 0-1 in the first round, Norway 2-0 in the second round, and Uruguay Women's New Team 3-2 in the final round, and finally finished runner-up 2-1. This is already a pretty good record for the Danish women's team, which is currently on the rise. It is understood that in the second women's national team competition window in April, the Danish women's football team will play against the Japanese women's team.
As for Haiti, the second group stage opponent, it was won 4-0 against Senegal and Chile 2-1 after the World Qualifier play-offs, although it was the first time in history to reach the Women's World Cup, but it was not necessarily so easy to deal with.
As for the last opponent in the group stage, the English women's football team, it is currently the favorite to win the Women's World Cup this year, whether it is staffing or competitive status. In this four-nation tournament on home soil, the South Korean women's team swept 4-0 in the first round, beat the Italian women's team 2-1 in the second round, and beat the Belgian women's team 6-1 in the final round, winning all three games. After winning the title, England women's team manager, Dutchman Wigman, said in an interview that until now, she was not sure who the main squad of England would be for this year's World Cup, because there are so many talents to choose from in the English women's team.
England won the Arnold Clark Cup Four Nations
Throughout 2022, the English women's football team remained unbeaten and also won the "Arnold Clark Cup Four Nations", when the quality and standard of the participating teams Germany, Spain and Canada may be higher than this year's four-nation away team, but the team has maintained the same basic squad and the players are in good form, young players such as Jess Parker, Carty Robinson, Maya Letichier and others have shown a high level in the Women's Premier League this season; The old players who were originally absent due to injury are also very good after their return. In this case, it is understandable that Wigman suffers from "happy troubles".
It is worth mentioning that the English women's football team swept the Japanese women's football team 4-0 in November last year, and this time it swept the South Korean women's team 4-0 in the four-nation tournament. So, in the future Women's World Cup, what will happen to the Chinese women's football team against the English women's team? We'll just have to wait and see.
China's women's football strategy lags behind
When the Chinese women's football team went to the Marbella Football Center in Spain for the first time in history to participate in the training and had a more intuitive and profound feeling of European football and Spanish football, the outside world did not seem to care about the development of the world's women's football, nor would it pay attention to a women's U19 Ten Nations Tournament being launched at the Marbella Football Center, with teams including Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, England, France and other top European women's youth teams to prepare for the subsequent European Women's U19 Championship. The Under-19 Ten Nations tournament was preceded by the Under-17 Women's Invitational Tournament. In another football center in Spain, a women's U23 invitational tournament was also played during the national team competition window, with teams such as Spain U23 women, Netherlands U23 women, Italy U23 women, Germany U23 women's team; The U.S. U23 women's team traveled to Paris and France Under-23 women's team for two warm-up matches.
Many Chinese fans are aware of the Chinese Super League's "U23 policy" and scoffed, and the Chinese Football Association generally welcomed it after announcing the cancellation of this year's Chinese Super League implementation. But in fact, this "U23" is a very important stage in the transition and development process from young players to adult professional players, so women's football teams in many European countries have formed "U23 Women's Football Team" in terms of the establishment of national teams, and also use the FIFA designated national team competition window to arrange a series of international matches. The aim is to give these players more international opportunities, increase their experience and prepare them for the next national team. This is a strategic move.
In fact, this "women's national U23 team" has begun to be implemented in neighboring Japan and Australia, which began to form a U23 national team two years ago, and the daily routine is to organize training camps and look for opportunities to participate in competitions. Australia has set up this U23 team to participate in the Southeast Asia Women's Football Championship, of course, it has also formed a U20 team to participate in the Southeast Asia Women's Football Championship, because there are many overseas players in Australian women's football, and it is impossible to organize training during the non-FIFA designated national team competition window.
In contrast, the Chinese women's football team seems to have never considered the construction of the U23 team, or even considered it a meaningless team because "there is no competition". The Chinese women's football team, including the men's football team, seems to be formed only around the game, rather than from the perspective of cultivating people, organizing the team to strive for further improvement. Therefore, the development strategy of Chinese football, including the development strategy of women's football, is difficult to have a real sense of strategy and planning. Of course, this is already off topic, but in the face of the current situation of women's football in Europe, why can it develop so rapidly? This is always a topic worth thinking about and studying.